Long Island school clerk caught tearing up ballots, trashing votes to help her candidate win – probe | 25 June 2026 | A Long Island school clerk overseeing board of education elections tore up ballots and threw them in a dumpster to rig the election for a local DJ, a newly revealed internal probe found. Hempstead Union Free School District Clerk April Keys allegedly rigged the May 19 trustee election by smuggling official ballots out of her office and handing absentee ballots to incumbent candidate Victor Pratt so he could trash them, according to a 51-page petition filed by the district with the state Education Department. Keys could now face criminal charges as the district is looking to overturn Pratt’s razor-thin win. The filing, which was submitted June 15 but emerged Thursday, asks state Education Department Commissioner Betty Rosa to order a new one election, with a replacement clerk and oversight by the state Attorney General’s Civil Rights office.